A Lesson to Learn
by Susannah
Summary: Draco claims something ambitious to impress a girl and ends up in a bet. To get what he wants, he needs to win over one Weasley, which wouldn't be so difficult, IF she wasn't in love with Harry Potter. A tale of love, commitment, lust and betrayal...
1. Chapter 1

Draco slouched. He knew he was doing it, and it was not something he usually did, but it was worth it to see the tic begin at the corner of his father's jaw.

"Father, I do not want to go to Germany for the summer," the tall blonde announced, letting just the right amount of boredom slip into his tone.

His father snapped.

"I do not _care_ what you want!" Lucius Malfoy thundered, appearing to reach twice his normal height. "I am sending you to stay with my brother – your uncle – Reinald, and that's final!" Draco watched as his father attempted to regain his inner calm and poise, he smirked. "Look," the elder Malfoy began in a quieter yet somehow more nasty tone, "My brother has kindly agreed to take you in whilst the final preparations for our Lord begin around here. You will have a chance to meet Reinald's new wife and her daughter and boost your knowledge even further of the Dark Arts. What reason is there not to go?"

_Of course_, Draco thought, mentally rolling his eyes. That's why his father wanted him gone, so that Lord Voldemort and his followers would have the full run of Malfoy Manor. And Lucius, being Lucius, was never entirely certain of anyone's loyalties, even his son's.

However, Draco hadn't missed the sparkle in Lucius' eye when he had mentioned his uncle's new wife and step daughter, there had to be a plan abroad here somewhere.

"Fine," Draco agreed slowly. "I'll go, just to be out of your way. (_Anything to be out of your way, _he thought) But what of mother, is she being sent away as well?" Draco fell into silence to allow his father the pleasure of trying to reason his way out of that one. Of course he knew his mother would stay here, he just wanted to know how his father would justify it. In reality, the Slytherin was somewhat relieved that he would not be around for Voldemort's plans, that way he could not be forced into anything, after all, he still wasn't entirely sure that being a deatheater was the way for him, there were many other cults he could join for a better deal. In fact maybe after the farce that was Hogwarts he would leave England altogether and never come back, maybe go somewhere cooler with a decent reputation for dark wizards and more flexible laws, like Norway. He thought eagerly about all the possibilities.

"She will stay here," his father finally snapped. "_Stop_ asking questions and for Merlin's sake stand up _straight_!"

Draco shrugged but complied, why insight punishment by disobeying when it could be so easily avoided after all?

"When do I leave?" _Then again…_

"Tomorrow," Lucius replied sharply. "So now go and pack. No house-elf help because of that last question and blatant disregard of my wishes." With that Lucius turned on his heel and strode away from Draco. The boy rolled his eyes for real this time. He was old enough to have a family of his own, why, oh why, did he have to listen to his father at all?

He knew the house elves would pack for him though; they were too well 'trained' to do anything else. One day it would be him giving his father orders, he vowed to himself.

The journey had already been long and was getting longer still. Draco sat in his own compartment on the German steam train; his father had said that it would be a two hour ride from the German National FlooPort to his uncle's villa in Lübeck but he'd been sitting in the same position for over four hours now, and his arse was beginning to ache.

At first the scenery had proved to be interesting, but now it just flew by in his peripheral vision without him noticing it barely at all. Various greens and grey merged together, making his impression of Germany to be quite dull and uninteresting.

He wondered what he would find when he reached Lübeck and whether it would be any better than what he had left in England. His Uncle Reinald was a twisted wizard, almost as much as Lucius was, he'd had four wives in as many years all of them with suspiciously young and attractive daughters. Draco supposed that this time would be no different, he wondered briefly what his real blood cousin – Damian – would think of them this time.

Damian was Reinald's only acknowledged offspring, though Draco was sure there were many bastards fathered by his uncle in the surrounding towns. His cousin was always something of an enigma, even Draco admitted this and he was Prince of the Ice Caps. His cousin was about three months older than Draco was and had attended Durmstrang, as most of the German witches and wizards did, except now he had left to study the origins of curses and hexes in a south German college. Draco often envied him because he got to do anything he wanted whereas his Father always expected _him_ to follow in his footsteps and follow the Dark Lord.

Spending the summer in Germany wouldn't be so bad he supposed, as long as he was left to his own devices most of the time. He just wished that his Father's first instinct wasn't to ship his son off to another country, especially since Draco knew that he could give a flying Niffler about his safety, he was only worried that he may get in the way and ruin the Deatheater party. Draco snorted.

His thoughts shifted to his upcoming year at Hogwarts, his seventh and final. Oh what fun… Personally, he quite enjoyed Hogwarts now, there was a time when he hated it with a passion just because his father's expectations always laid so heavily on his shoulders, but now it was just an excuse for a good time. There was always a decent supply of willing girls looking for a pleasurable date to giggle with their friends about and Draco was always happy to acquiesce.

In fact the only low point of going to Hogwarts was having to share it with the Gryffindors and all their morals, Draco would be quite content if Voldemort just finished them off and then topped himself, which would solve all his problems. It was just that the whole 'courageous' house (stupid, more like) were just such a waste of space, most of them being mudbloods – Granger being a prime example – or even worse than that, mudblood _lovers_ like Weasley and that squirt sister of his. The blonde fought the urge to spit on the floor, partly because it was impolite, and partly because Malfoy's didn't spit.

Draco slid smoothly off the Lübeck Express his trunk hovering (feather-light) beside him. He glanced sharply around the station, it looked almost identical to the one he had boarded from – more than five hours ago, except this one – if it was possible – was even more deserted.

He caught sight of a short blonde man with a receding hairline standing at the edge of the doorway into the station building. The man waddled towards him seemingly nervous; he fiddled with the buttons of his tailored suit. Draco watched him expressionlessly as he approached, taking in his somewhat slippery and greasy demeanour. Definitely sent by his uncle, he concluded.

"Master Draco?" he asked, a strong German accent coming through gutturally.

The blonde inclined his head gracefully, answering the title. He hoped that they weren't all going to be speaking like this; else he would barely be able to understand a word.

The blonde man hefted Draco's baggage into his arms, the feather-weight charm wearing off immediately he touched it. "I am Fremont, Herr. Malfoy sent me to collect you and return you to the Villa. A car is waiting outside as we speak."

"We're going by muggle transport?" Draco inquired, wrinkling his nose in disgust.

Fremont nodded. "The Germans are very suspicious and shrewd, we must be subtle. The journey is only twenty minutes."

Draco followed Fremont to the outside waiting car, it was black and sleek with tinted windows. It would do, he supposed. Once in the car, the journey seemed to blur by, and he wondered what enchantments had been put on the car after all. Very slowly he caught sight of his uncle's villa on the horizon and watched as it drew ever nearer.

It was certainly huge and magnificent, although it had nothing on Malfoy Manor of course. It stood atop a hill, windows facing vigilantly in every direction. As they approached Draco saw there were people sitting on the lawn, reclining in style beneath the heated German sun. To his surprise, Fremont drove them straight up, across the drive and headed straight towards the gathering of people. He stopped right before them.

_Way to go for an introduction. _Fremont said; "You get out here Young Master, and I will drive your belongings up to the house to be unpacked. Your uncle is waiting to greet you."

Draco climbed abruptly out of the car, the heat immediately smothering him in waves. Reinald approached him calmly, wearing nothing but a loose shirt and some ill-fitting trousers. Draco suddenly felt very over dressed.

"Welcome Draco! How was the journey?" The blonde was relieved to find that he spoke perfect, articulate, non-German lilting English.

"It was fine thank you uncle," he lied stiffly. "Lucius sends his regards."

"Yes, yes, I'm sure he does," his uncle agreed doubtfully. "Now, first we must introduce you to everyone, and then you can change into something a… little more fitting for the weather."

Draco allowed himself to be propelled along towards the small group of people, one of whom he recognised as Damian.

"This is my new wife, Marian," Reinald began gesturing to an older woman with chestnut hair and dark – almost – black eyes. Draco acknowledged her politely. Two more women were introduced as his sister-in-laws and three young men as their offspring, Draco greeted them all calmly, wondering how many more irrelevant relatives he had to be introduced to.

"And where is Viveka?" his uncle exclaimed, jerking Draco back to his slightly uncomfortable – sweaty – reality. _Oh Merlin, how more relatives could there **be**?_

"I'm here, Father," announced a ringing voice from behind Draco's back. Father? That must mean she was his new cousin.

Draco turned to find himself staring into darkened depths of beautiful eyes. His breath caught in his throat, and his eyes did a quick, unavoidable tour of her bikini-clad body. This holiday was going to be great.


	2. Chapter 2

Numero Dos

Ginny gave an inaudible whoop of enjoyment as the wind whipped relentlessly through her hair. She bobbed and blew on the breeze across the height of the makeshift quidditch pitch, loving the feeling of being able to look down and pinpoint exactly where everyone was. She let her broom rise higher and higher, feeling the warm summer air begin to drop in temperature ever so gradually.

She was playing seeker for 'team dropout' as Fred jokingly named them, Ginny personally thought it was quite a fitting name; although everyone had been banned from playing their usual positions, Ginny's team consisted of her, Fred, Hermione, Mr Weasley and Lee Jordan. Against them was Harry (playing chaser), Ron, Charlie, George and Bill – by far the strongest team, though Ginny thought they were putting up a decent enough fight.

They were two player beneath the normal count for quidditch team but then the normal count was for normal quidditch, what they played at the Burrow was Weasley quidditch (or quick quidditch, but this proved to be a bit of a mouthful) where almost anything went. That is to say; total chaos.

Ginny looked back on the summer thoughtfully. Harry had been with them since July and had probably had the most celebrated birthday of his life. She thought it was good that he was around people; it took his mind off things. Although when he was around her family had a tendency to ignore her; her mum was so busy seeing to his needs, her brothers at making him feel at home and everyone just generally being a hive of activity around him. Ginny often felt excluded and alone, mostly because Harry rarely spoke to her and therefore no one else did either.

Except to tease her, this was starting to get to her a little. Ginny was mostly used to it since she had grown up with six brothers all of whom had mercilessly teased her at one point or another, but usually one of the others would defend her. When Harry was around though, the teasing kicked up a notch and they all seemed to just assume she would take it. One day she would just slap one of them she knew it…

* * *

Ginny curled up in the corner of her room which was warmest. It was the last evening of the summer holidays and for some bizarre reason the strain of good weather had given way to a cold flush that evening causing Ginny to shiver in the light camisole she wore.

She unfolded a dog-eared notebook in her lap, flicking quickly through pages of neat writing until she came to a blank page. Putting her pen gently in the top left-hand corner she began to write;

_Sunday 4th September_

_Well, have now spent four weeks in the company of Harry and I think he's said maybe… four sentences to me. One a week. Sometimes I think it would be so much easier if I hated him._

_But I can't. I mean he's just so good and kind, and I know he's been through a lot… but I just wish he'd acknowledge me. Y'know, even as a friend?_

_I could even settle with friendship – that's how desperate I am for some interaction with him! I know you can't make someone like you, but sometimes I just ache because I like him so much. Why is it always me? Why am I always so unlucky?_

_I swear every single one of the girls in my year has had at least one boyfriend, some of them have even done you-know-what, why do I have such a problem even getting someone vaguely interested?_

_Am I ugly? Irritating? I'd like to think that it's just because my brothers scare them away but I don't think that's true. Maybe it's just that I'm too shy… but it's not like I don't try! I do talk to Harry, or at least I try to, but there's never a good moment where he's not busy, or doing something or… anything in fact. I know he doesn't like Cho Chang anymore, or well not really, because of the whole Cedric Diggory thing. The whole dying thing. Still terrifies me I have to say, that Tom could be that brutal. Voldemort – Tom, same thing I know, but sometimes in my memory it's like they're different people._

_I guess we'll all die someday, but it's scary thinking about it; I mean where do we go? What happens afterwards? Do we just… vanish?_

_Anyway, got a little off topic now. I think this year I will try and be better. Try and be louder. Try and get Harry's attention. This is my year. I hope._

Ginny put the pen down and closed the book. Thinking about her life made her unhappy. It wasn't that anything was particularly wrong, but then nothing was particularly right either.

The first tear rolled down her cheek and dripped onto the back of her hand, after that she couldn't stop herself.

* * *

The Hogwarts morning was rushed as usual, especially with Ron, Harry and Hermione going into their final year, Ginny in her sixth and all of her brothers wanting to see them off.

Breakfast was eaten in a groggy silence, since none of them had seen seven o'clock for nearly six weeks. Ginny was squeezed between Ron and Charlie and was persevering with eating her eggs despite the fact that every time Ron reached for anything he elbowed her in the chest and Charlie had fallen asleep on her other shoulder.

It was almost a relief when her mother stood up to gesture that it was time for them to leave. Although, Ginny always felt a bit sad leaving the Burrow, she knew she'd be back again soon and Hogwarts was her life. Hogwarts was her path to greater things, she just hoped her ambition would be enough to carry her.

The journey to the train station passed with little disturbance and Ginny found herself once again standing on platform nine and three-quarters. She looked around her at all the bustle and activity and felt apart and alone. Time seemed to stand still for her as people wound in and out of the crowd, hugging and kissing. She felt so very apart from them.

She caught sight of a familiar streak of blonde hair and her eyes were drawn unbidden to it. Draco Malfoy was sliding calmly through the crowds a girl linked casually through his arm. The girl caught Ginny's interest for a second, she was very… striking, not traditionally pretty or even beautiful just very eye-catching. The effect she had on every male in her immediate vicinity was quite obvious and Ginny felt a little jealousy stir arise in her heart. Malfoy looked like the cat that had caught the canary, his smirk nearly sickening.

A slight application of pressure at the small of her back made her turn around and she found herself looking into the eyes of her brother.

"C'mon Gin, keeping moving we do _want_ to catch the train you know." She smiled mistily in reply shaking her head free of her thoughts.

Off to Hogwarts it was then.


End file.
